New Clause 22
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
5:00 pm
Andrew Selous (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; South West Bedfordshire, Conservative)
I have listened carefully to the Minister. He gave a summary of the CMEC’s powers to enforce and collect debt and to ensure that debt does not accumulate in the first place, the vast majority of which we Conservatives are happy with and welcome. However, none of what he said in respect of those matters touched on what new clause 22 is trying to do, which is to address a situation where all those powers have failed and the commission has had a full year to pursue debt that has accumulated in spite of the various powers that it will have. Many parents with care have, under the CSA, felt too powerless to do anything themselves to recover the huge amounts of debt owed to them.
It was only in the last sentence or so that the Minister made me think twice about the new clause—when he mentioned the possibility of the power it contains being used to pursue a non-resident parent whose affairs were complicated and who had perhaps become a parent with care himself. In the light of that, I am prepared not to press the new clause, although I may perhaps think about taking it up again in another format. However, given what he has said, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion.